Reston Spring

Reston Spring
Reston Spring

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Will MWAA sell out the public on the Silver Line?

Near the end of another excellent Washington Post update on the Silver Line construction morass, reporter Lori Aratani drops this sentence:
DTP officials have already hinted that the April deadline may be negotiable, but MWAA probably will face public pressure to not yield.
Also revealed in the article is the fact that MWAA actually approved the installation of the speakers at all the stations that have now been found to not be up to code.
(MWAA Project Manager Pat) Nowakowski said that the station speakers, for example, were approved for installation as part of the project’s design review process and that similar equipment is used in the current Metro system. But state inspectors said they could not approve them for use because they do not meet code requirements.
Do neither MWAA nor Bechtel et al know what state construction codes call for?  How are they allowed to manage or build a multi-billion project if they don't even know the basic rules?  Errors, even incompetence, all around.

Click here to read the rest of this article on the discussion of the Silver Line at MWAA's Board meeting yesterday.

Of course, DTP--Bechtel and it co-conspirators--would like MWAA to give them a break in their failed railway construction effort.  And MWAA is just the organization to do that because it has so little skin in the game--a less than 5% share of construction costs.  Instead, MWAA and its "funding partners"--the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax and Loudoun counties--have shifted over half the cost of construction to Dulles Toll Road users.  That could mean greater increases in tolls than are already anticipated.  

2 comments:

  1. This post reeks of the kind of paranoia that I find hilarious. Ever think that the codes changed between the design phase and construction? They shouldn't have been installed in that way, but many people have already said it wont effect the construction schedule because it is a non-critical element. They are the same exact speakers as the rest of the system and can be changed out at any point, not on the critical path.

    Toll road toll road toll road. You people are obsessed with your crappy little toll road.

    Now never let this be visible mk? Showing just how cowardly you people are to dissenting opinions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. We are pleased you find hilarity in this situation.

      We don't find it funny at all because we want the Metrorail done ON TIME and WITHIN BUDGET as we have advocated since we started advocating anything. For equally as long, we have thought the financial arrangement that sticks toll road users--most of whom will never be able to use the Silver Line instead--with about half the cost of the line is unconscionable--and we still do! The fact that delays will drive the cost up and, worse, that MWAA might consider accepting some of those costs is just outrageous.

      Moreover, contrary to your point about the speakers, they are already affecting the construction schedule--because MWAA and DTP are bickering about the stupid mistake one or both of them made. And the worry here is that toll road users will have to pay for it.

      Delete

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